Haiti: the crushing debt paid to France at the time of Independence
Statue of Haitian independence hero, Toussaint Louverture, in Port-au-Prince, September 2, 2012. © AP - Dieu Nalio Chery
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
This evening, at 5:10 p.m. GMT on RFI, the Décryptage program is devoted to the crushing debt that Haiti had to pay for decades to France, from which it had just gained its independence.
The
New York Times
has just devoted a series of articles to this debt which, according to the American daily, has cost the economic development of the island between 21 and 115 billion dollars in losses.
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In 1804, Haiti freed itself from French colonization.
But twenty years later, King Charles X sent a warship and forced the former colonized to pay 150 million francs in reparations to France.
Haiti cannot pay and is indebted to French banks.
According to the
New York Times
, in the space of 64 years, the country had to pay the equivalent of 560 million current dollars.
►Also listen: Questions around the Haitian independence debt
The resulting loss in economic development would vary between 21 and 115 billion dollars over two centuries.
The daily also accuses the French bank CIC of having siphoned off at the end of the 19ᵉ century, through the Haitian National Bank which it controlled, tens of millions of dollars - which notably enabled it to finance the construction of Eiffel Tower.
Crédit Mutuel, the parent company of CIC, reacted to the investigation, announcing the financing of “
independent university work to shed light on this past
”.
Finally, the
New York Times
recalls the looting of Haitian gold reserves by the American Marines: $500,000 stolen in 1914, a year before the invasion of the country by the American army, for an occupation that was to last until 1934.
After which, Washington would still retain control of Haitian finances for more than ten years.
►
The Decryption program to listen to here at
.
Haiti is the only country in the world where descendants of enslaved people were forced to pay reparations to descendants of their masters for generations.
Nobody knew exactly how much Haiti paid France — and at what cost to its future — until now.
https://t.co/ZxAwpSwJ98 pic.twitter.com/Ri6jHQOgYK
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 21, 2022
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